Upcountry South Carolina News

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7/20/2016

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Upcountry Museums for a Variety of Interests

Museums are a great way to learn about a small slice of history—and from trains to baseball to kitchen gadgets to Cherokee Nation history, there are some fascinating smaller museums tucked away in various corners of the Upcountry that are worth checking out.

To be sure, there are some larger, not-to-be-missed museums in the area. In Greenville there is the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery and the Greenville County Museum of Art and in Spartanburg there is the Chapman Cultural Center. There are some quality county museums focusing on county-specific heritage and history, such as the Oconee Heritage Center and the Cherokee County History and Arts Museum.

Certainly, you should take in those museums as you’re exploring the area—but here are some smaller niche museums you may have missed:

Hub City Railroad Museum: housed in the depot building, displays include railroad artifacts as well as items that would have been shipped by railroad (298 Magnolia Street, Spartanburg, SC; open Wednesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.)

The Historic Belton Train Depot houses two different museums: The Ruth Drake Museum’s holdings include all kinds of artifacts of domestic life, from kitchen gadgets to farm implements, and the South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame includes portraits of inductees, and plenty of other tennis memorabilia. (100 N. Main Street, Belton, SC; open Wednesday–Saturday; call 864-338-7400 for hours.